In an existing mobile internet, a number of applications need to remain in an online state for a long time. This requires that an application in a mobile terminal should unceasingly detect network connections even without data transmission, and transmit heartbeat information to a corresponding application server through a timed heartbeat reminder of a timer provided in the terminal so as to remain in the online state. However, at present, there is also a phenomenon that such heartbeat mechanism is abused. For instance, some applications may use the heartbeat mechanism to realize real-time content updating (for example, a news application or a forum application), but the user may do not really need these updated contents; moreover, in order to push information such as advertising to the user, some applications also maintain connections between a terminal and a server through setting heartbeats, however, the user may be not interested in these information or even may detest these information.
These unnecessary “heartbeats” for the user listed above will incur a lot of problems: for instance, power consumption of a mobile phone increases; excessive phone memory is occupied; and transmitting heartbeat information by a terminal causes waste of data traffic, and etc. Thus, how to effectively manage and set the heartbeat timer within the mobile phone terminal becomes an urgent problem.